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Design-time simulation of a large-scale, distributed object system

Design-time simulation of a large-scale, distributed object system We present a case study in using simulation at design time to predict the performance and scalability properties of a large-scale distributed object system. The system, called Consul, is a network management system designing to support hundreds of operators managing millions of network devices. It is essential that a system such as Consul be designed with performance and scalability in mind, but due to Consul's complexity and scale, it is hard to reason about performance and scalability using ad hoc techniques. We built a simulation of Consul's design to guide the design process by enabling performanace and scalability analysis of various design alternatives. A major challenge in doing design-time simulation is that many parameters for the simulation are based on estimates rather than measurements. We developed analysis methods that derive conclusions that are valid in the presence of estimation errors. In this article, we describe our scalability analysis method for design simulations of distributed object systems. The main idea is to use relative and comparative reasoning to analyze design alternatives and compare transaction behaviors. We demonstrate the analysis approach by describing its application to Consul. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS) Association for Computing Machinery

Design-time simulation of a large-scale, distributed object system

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Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 by ACM Inc.
ISSN
1049-3301
DOI
10.1145/295251.295255
Publisher site
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Abstract

We present a case study in using simulation at design time to predict the performance and scalability properties of a large-scale distributed object system. The system, called Consul, is a network management system designing to support hundreds of operators managing millions of network devices. It is essential that a system such as Consul be designed with performance and scalability in mind, but due to Consul's complexity and scale, it is hard to reason about performance and scalability using ad hoc techniques. We built a simulation of Consul's design to guide the design process by enabling performanace and scalability analysis of various design alternatives. A major challenge in doing design-time simulation is that many parameters for the simulation are based on estimates rather than measurements. We developed analysis methods that derive conclusions that are valid in the presence of estimation errors. In this article, we describe our scalability analysis method for design simulations of distributed object systems. The main idea is to use relative and comparative reasoning to analyze design alternatives and compare transaction behaviors. We demonstrate the analysis approach by describing its application to Consul.

Journal

ACM Transactions on Modeling and Computer Simulation (TOMACS) – Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Oct 1, 1998

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